Finalists chosen from 180 businesses for LaunchPad competition

Gorham Savings Bank has selected five Maine businesses to be this year’s finalists in its annual LaunchPad small business competition, the bank said Thursday.

From an applicant pool of over 180 businesses, it chose American Roots of Westbrook, Bangs Island Mussels of Portland, Blue Ox Malthouse of Lisbon Falls, North Spore of Westbrook and Wallace James Clothing Co. of Portland to move on to the next round – a live pitch competition at 5 p.m. June 5 at the University of Southern Maine’s Hannaford Hall in Portland.

There, in front of a live audience, an independent panel of judges will decide which finalist will be awarded a $50,000 grant from Gorham Savings. This year’s LaunchPad judges will be Winxnet co-founder and CEO Chris Claudio, Pro-voke founder and CEO Steve Campbell, and Village Fertility Pharmacy co-owner and Chief Financial Officer Catherine Cloudman.

Now in its sixth year, LaunchPad is designed to help Maine innovators and entrepreneurs get to the next stage of growth, the bank said.

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